Grisbi vs Lago

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted budgeting & finance options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FeatureGrisbiLago
CategoryBudgeting & FinanceBudgeting & Finance
LicenseGPL-2.0AGPL-3.0
LanguageCGo
Setup difficultyEasyHard
Min. RAM128 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentbinary, bare-metaldocker, kubernetes, source
GitHub stars★ 156★ 10,308
First released20002022
ReplacesQuickenStripe Billing, Chargebee

Why pick each one

Choose Grisbi if…

  • Released under the GPL-2.0 license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Written in C
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Grisbi details

Choose Lago if…

  • Powerful for SaaS billing
  • Developer-friendly
Lago details

Frequently asked questions

Is Grisbi or Lago better?

Neither is universally better. Lago has the larger community, while Grisbi is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Grisbi and Lago free and open-source?

Yes. Grisbi is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Lago under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Grisbi and Lago with Docker?

Grisbi: check the project docs for container support. Lago: yes.

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